As traffic across communications networks grow at a very high rate, it is becoming increasingly important to make the optical network more efficient. Capacity across networks today is deployed in a symmetrical manner. For example, in some networks wavelength circuits provide the same capacity in both directions, with the result that the capacity in one direction is often wasted. Thus, optical equipment used to deploy capacity in both directions may add to costs of the overall network even though the optical equipment that provides equal capacity in both directions is not needed.